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By Rachel Dobkin
Weekend Reporter
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Tech billionaire Elon Musk's new opinion article in Germany's Welt am Sonntag led the newspaper's opinion editor to resign.
Newsweek reached out to Musk's social media platform X, formerly Twitter, via email for comment from the tech tycoon and the WELT Group via email for comment on the editor's resignation Saturday afternoon.
Why It Matters
Musk, the owner of X, and the CEO of car manufacturer Tesla and space tech company SpaceX, has cozied up to President-elect Donald Trump, especially after his November election win. Now, Musk has grown his influence abroad, appearing in a German newspaper to support the country's Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
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The AfD party is viewed by many as far right and, according to Reuters, the party, at the national level, has been classified by Germany's domestic intelligence agency as a suspected extremism case starting in 2021.
What To Know
Following the online publication of Musk's commentary on Saturday, which was written in German, Eva Marie Kogel, the editor of Welt am Sonntag's opinion section, quickly resigned.
"I always enjoyed heading the opinion section of WELT and WAMS. Today an article by Elon Musk appeared in Welt am Sonntag. I handed in my resignation yesterday after it went to print," Kogel wrote on X early Saturday morning, according to an English translation of the post written in German.
Musk wrote in the opinion piece, according to an English translation by Reuters, "The portrayal of the AfD as right-wing extremist is clearly false, considering that Alice Weidel, the party's leader, has a same-sex partner from Sri Lanka! Does that sound like Hitler to you? Please!"
Welt am Sonntag published a statement by the newspaper's editor-in-chief designate Jan Philipp Burgard underneath Musk's commentary.
"Musk's diagnosis is correct, but his therapeutic approach, that only the AfD can save Germany, is fatally false," he wrote.
The tech tycoon's opinion piece follows a statement he wrote on X on December 20, "Only the AfD can save Germany."
The AfD became the first party considered by many to be far-right to come out victorious in a state election in Germany since the World War II when it won Brandenburg in September.
While the majority of Germans see the party in a negative light, the AfD's 19 percent favorability rating in a Pew Research Center survey conducted from January 11 to March 20 is the highest recorded in the Center's eight years of conducting surveys on the topic.
At the same time, other German parties have seen their popularity wane, with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democratic Party (SPD)'s popularity dropping from 67 percent in 2022 to 39 percent this year, according to the Pew Research Center's poll that surveyed 1,008 German adults.
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What People Are Saying
Burgard and Ulf Poschardt, the incoming publisher of Welt am Sonntag, said in a statement to Reuters, "Democracy and journalism thrive on freedom of expression. This includes dealing with polarizing positions and classifying them journalistically."
They added that the discussion surrounding Musk's opinion article was "very revealing." Musk's piece had over 300 comments several hours after it was published.
Scholz said at a news conference on December 20 in response to Musk's X post, "We have freedom of opinion—it also goes for multibillionaires, but freedom of opinion also means that you can say things that aren't right and don't contain good political advice."
He added: "I say emphatically that the democratic parties in Germany all see it differently."
Weidel said in a December 20 X post that the AfD "is indeed the one and only alternative for our country; our very last option."
She also shared several blurbs taken from Musk's opinion piece on X on Saturday, which have been translated from German to English:
- "The AfD advocates a controlled immigration policy that gives priority to integration and the preservation of German culture and security. This is not about xenophobia, but about ensuring that Germany does not lose its identity in the pursuit of globalization."
- "The AfD, even though it is described as right-wing extremist, represents a political realism that resonates with many Germans who feel that their concerns are ignored by the establishment. It addresses current problems - without the political correctness that often obscures the truth."
- "The AfD has understood that economic freedom is not only desirable, but necessary. Their approach to reducing government over-regulation, cutting taxes and deregulating the market reflects the principles that have made Tesla and SpaceX successful."
Musk reshared some of Weidel's posts on X.
What Happens Next
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier scheduled new elections for February 23, seven months earlier than planned after Scholz lost a confidence vote in the German parliament last week amid the country's worsening economic crisis.
AfD is polling in second place after the German conservatives, Reuters reported earlier this month. But, according to the Associated Press, Weidel will not realistically become chancellor given that other parties refuse to work with the AfD.
Update 12/28/24, 3:09 p.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information.
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